It’s a sad reality. People treat other people differently – and discriminate against them – for a variety of reasons. People might view and treat other people as less than because their looks, their life partners, their educations and jobs, their political leanings, and a host of other reasons that might be different (and sometimes only slightly different) from their own.
Through the years, there have often been stigmas and discrimination surrounding drug addiction and alcohol abuse. This stigma has included depicting drug users with hyperbole and campiness in works of fiction such as the 1930s film Reefer Madness. That film depicted marijuana users as violent and crazed. (By the way, marijuana users don’t often seem violent or crazed while they’re under the influence of the drug, since they claim the drug has relaxing effects, not stimulating ones.)
Antidrug stigmas are often more dangerous and far-reaching than the more silly stigmas seen in Reefer Madness. These harmful stigmas include the language many people use when discussing drug and alcohol abuse. They call drug users junkies, crackheads, or stoners, disregarding the fact that more and more medical professionals consider drug and alcohol abuse a disease and a medical condition, not the choices of people who lack willpower or morals.
The stigma of addiction has affected the entire lives of some people. The U.S. criminal justice and legal systems have long advocated imprisoning people for drug-related offenses (including drug possession). Even if people are released from prison for such drug-related incidents, they may find it hard to find jobs or housing and face other discrimination and stigmas because of those incidents.
People who abuse alcohol or drugs have thus faced considerable stigmas and discrimination over the years.
Are There Different Stigmas Surrounding Drug Addiction?
To make complex matters even more complex, there are different stigmas and discrimination surrounding different drug users and different drugs. For example, it seems that many people view the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s differently from the opioid epidemic that is occurring now.
During 1980s, the first lady of the United States, Nancy Reagan, exhorted people to “Just say no!” to drugs. The administration of her husband, President Ronald Reagan, promoted the war on drugs begun by previous administrations.
Also during the 1980s, the media, television and radio news broadcasts, newspapers, and magazines all contained stories about crack cocaine and its supposed prevalence in inner cities in the 1980s. These stories often mentioned African Americans who struggled with the drug, although many different people have struggled with crack cocaine addiction through the years.
The media’s current approach to opioid addiction is quite different. If you look at news stories about the issue, the face of opioid addiction is a Caucasian person who lives in a rural area or the suburbs.
Writing in YES! magazine, Lornet Turnbull says that these stories and the U.S. government’s response have a different tone. Many of these perspectives talk about how addiction is a disease that requires compassion and treatment, not a choice where you can just say no.
Turnbull and others wonder if racism has affected the coverage of crack addiction and opioid addiction and how the government has reacted to the different types of addiction. She said while that it’s encouraging that the media and the government are treating drug users with more understanding, it’s important that we should extend this understanding to all people.
How Do We End These Antidrug Stigmas?
Understanding is crucial in fighting addiction and the stigma of addiction. Studying people who struggle from it, the conditions that may have prompted these conditions, and even the drugs themselves can help us understand people and their addiction.
Creating this kind of understanding is going to take some courage. Other people have bravely faced such stigmas to discuss their own drug addictions and alcohol abuse. They’ve succeeded in diminishing the stigma somewhat. It seems more people will need to come forward and discuss their own addictions with people still inclined to stigmatize them.
Such discussion can help illustrate that drug addiction and alcohol abuse are not isolated incidents. They can show that addicts aren’t “those people” but friends, family members, and maybe even us. It can put human faces to people who struggle with substance use disorder and explain how their conditions create ripple effects that affect their families, friends, workplaces, and larger communities.
Institutions and organizations have helped foster this understanding. Many police departments and community organizations have held open discussions about drug abuse and its ramifications. Such departments and organizations often sponsor programs to help people find treatment for their drug addictions instead of punishing them for these conditions.
Other institutions, such as the U.S. federal government, have also helped in the fight against stigmatization. Former U.S. surgeon general Dr. Vivek H. Murthy has called addiction a disease, a statement that has received a considerable amount of press coverage. These discussions and the promotion of knowledge can help us see drug addicts as real people who need real help, not dismiss them as worthless people who are the victims of their bad choices.
